Read This if You Think Age Doesn’t Matter
“Wait, they gave the job to who?”
I’d just been turned down after what I thought was a killer interview for a programming job. I had the knowledge. I had some experience. I’d just achieved my minor in computer science. With 4 years of good old fashioned learnin’ I felt sure I could handle any coding task.
The guy who got the job had just crossed his 35th birthday. He had a son and a wife and 10 years of programming experience in various impressive companies.
Oh, and he also had a degree just like me.
Right.
(^Listen to this^It’s honestly a little bizarre how we are raised if you think about it.
When you are 7, you compete with only 7 year olds.
When you are 15, you compete with only 15 year olds.
But then, when you are 22 (18 for some), you compete with every other human being on the planet.
Before that job interview, it never occurred to me they might give the position to someone older than 23.
Despite the hype of the unicorn teenage entrepreneur, age matters a lot. When James Altucher writes about investing, he does so from 20 years of experience. His Wall Street career began as I as was settling down for my nap on the floor of my kindergarten classroom.
But does that mean you have nothing to offer as a young person?
Of course not.
I can’t help but think of Evan Spiegel, founder of Snapchat. I can’t help but think of Steve Jobs, who founded… what was it? Something important. Both were under 30 when they changed the world.
Those men were also operating in their area of passion, though. Had they tried to become life or marriage coaches, they would have collected some skeptical looks.
Is it time for a list? It’s time for a list.
A) AGE GIVES YOU PERSPECTIVE
My grandmother turned 91 this year. Actually, I can’t promise you she turned 91 because I am a mediocre grandson and nobody has made her a Wikipedia page yet, so I can’t look it up. I can only tell you she is between 88 and 92.
Either way, when she talks about her youth, she does not talk about money struggles. She does not talk about something she bought which made her very happy.
She talks about the summer she spent riding a bike around Cape Cod. She talks about the time she almost froze to death outside a friend’s house late at night because she was too polite to knock. She talks about my grandfather, and the vacations they used to take before he passed away.
And here we are, wondering how to squeeze a little more productivity out of our days.
B) AGE GIVES YOU EXPERIENCE
Imagine you are reading the back cover of two similar books:
“John has learned countless lessons over his 15-year career, working with companies like Home Depot, FedEx, and Google.”
“John has learned countless lessons over his 4-year career, spending that time as the graphic designer for Home Depot.”
Which one seems more impressive?
I know I’m on Medium here, where most of us would just buy both books and decide from there, but for the most part “10 years of doing XYZ” sounds better than “4 years of doing XYZ”
There is no replacement for time.
C) AGE GIVES YOU SCARS
My great grandmother passed away at age 96.
By the time she left this planet, literally everyone she grew up died. She watched the majority of them get planted in the ground.
Toward the end she was stripped of the autonomy she had grown accustomed to over 70 years or so. She had nowhere to go, nobody to please, no job to show up for. That is pain. One of my biggest regrets is not asking her how she handled everything. After all, I’ll may go through the same agony.
The more scars you have, the more human you become. Show them to us, and we will love you.
Allow them to fuel you, and change the world.